In every aspect of our lives, key factors change over time. When we visualize these trends, previously hidden patterns jump into view. Those who take the time to remember the past in this way are better able to shape their future destiny.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

In the past few days, we've posted a total of 21 charts showing trends that matter on the ground in Iraq. These were culled and selected from 4 separate sources and posted in 4 separate posts. You can scroll down the January 2007 posts from January 17th back to January 13th and find all 21 of these charts in relatively close proximity to each other. Our theory is that by bringing them all to one relatively compact place, we make it easier for those who are interested in learning more about what is happening to have access to the combined analysis and reporting talent from the four sources.

What can we do next? We think this approach makes it easier, but it still is not easy. Due to the current limitations of this blog, the graphs that appear in the blog itself are relatively small in size and to get a full grasp of the message of each trend it is necessary to click on each trend graph to get a full size image. This is pretty unwieldy and involves a lot of extra back and forth clicks to navigate to a good sized view of each trend.

Here's a possible approach to make this a bit easier and less time consuming and require far fewer clicks and allow much better navigation back and forth between the different trend charts. What we've done is to take all 21 trend graphs to create a single down-loadable PDF document that will let you easily view all trends up to the full size your screen while navigating back and forth to the chart you want using the full navigational capabilities of Adobe Acrobat (e.g. page down, page up).

Here's the link - Combine-Iraq-Trends Please let us know what you think of this step towards making these important charts rank higher on a ready-viewability scale.

Did you find the navigation easier?Did having easy access to all trends in full size improve understanding for you?What other suggestions do you have to make this even easier?

Trend Visualization Principles

1. Context Comes First. Ask all the subject matter experts: What are the most important factors? What's missing? What other factors must you include?

2.Create a History. Measure, record and archive a trend history of every important factor. For best results, measure at a relatively high frequency.

3. Look at ALL the Data. Once you have a history of the most important factors, you'll find charts with but a single variable will tell a powerful story all by themselves. Avoid beginning with the most complicated, most cluttered charts before you have established a good context by actually looking at each important factor on its own.

4. Share ALL Your Data. When you publish a chart, share the readily reusable data with the chart. Include the entire time range of the data you analyzed even if the charts you presented use a shorter interval.

6. Show Your Thinking. Place explanatory text for your findings in close physical proximity to the your published trend charts. Data + Charts + Text creates a full package that encourages further conversation.

7. Insure Readability. Make sure the axes and titles and other text graphics are easily readable.

What principles do you see as contributing most to improved understanding and enhanced collaboration?